Matthew Torres 1

Matthew Torres

ENC2135

Professor Ahmeti

February 2, 2023

Social Media’s effect on Adolescents

The life of an adolescent is confusing and often a difficult time in their lives. Many are

going through puberty and their bodies are changing and in a biological sense, they are becoming

adults. With these changes, many adolescents are finding themselves, their personality, and their

lifestyles. They are becoming more socially aware of family and friends and at this time they

create memories that’ll last a lifetime. However, in this new modern world, adolescents also have

the addition of technology and social media in their lives. The adolescents from generation z are

the first generation to grow up with technology in their lives and their education. Many grew up

having cellular devices or tablets from years of elementary school. Additionally, at this time

many schools were integrating technology into their school programs and the students would

have used educational programs like Starfall and ABCmouse. Lastly, the development of social

media alongside all these advancements was a growing phenomenon like YouTube, Twitter,

Instagram, etc. The adolescents from generation Z were some of the first people to create

accounts and explore the world of social media from a young age. With that being stated, the

question that’s often asked is “Has social media affected these adolescents.” With the

introduction of social media on generation z adolescents, has there been any effect on their social

life, mental health, or education?

 Matthew Torres 2

The social life of adolescents is an integral part of their development. For teens of this

age, social media has a grand factor in this development. Many studies have been conducted to

see the effect of social media on adolescents’ social life. One study conducted by Hossain

studied the correlation between social media use among college students and he wanted to see if

social media affects their relationships (Hossain 2020). He conducted an experiment of several

surveys on students from Bangladesh from different universities to see the effect of social media

on their lives. They found that there was an effect on social media usage and college students’

friends and family relations, generating boring life, improving communication levels, etc.

(Hossain 2020). They found that many college students improved their communication skills

through the use of social media having the highest average mean of 3.98, showing a high effect.

They also found that social media did not cause a “negative impact on the relation with friends

and family” having the lowest average mean of 2.32, showing a low effect. However, there were

high average means showing high effects on the categories “time waste for using” (mean=3.91),

“family complains about use” (mean=3.91), and “finding life boring without social media use

within a day” (mean=3.48) (Hossain 2020). While social media did not negatively impact the

relations of friends and family for the college students used in the study, other factors were

affected by the use of social media. On the other hand, social media had a positive effect on the

communication development of the students and in the surveys, they found that one driving

factor for social media use was to stay in touch with friends (Hossain 2020). Those factors are

academics, time, quality of life, and money. Another study conducted by Pouwels studied the

correlation between social media and friendship closeness among adolescents. Through the

observation of other studies that were done similarly to Pouwels, he conducted the study by

giving European adolescents surveys asking about friend closeness within three popular social
 Matthew Torres 3

media apps: Instagram, WhatsApp, and Snapchat. The results of the study showed that social

media generally had a positive effect when it came to friendship closeness (Pouwels 2021). They

had two hypotheses they were testing within three different categories: Momentary social media

use and momentary friendship closeness, social media use with close friends, and different

platforms, differential effects (Pouwels 2021). The results of the study were H1a was partially

supported by data, H1b was nonsignificant or very small negative, H2a was found strongly

positive, H2b was significant but a little negative, H3a and H2b found that WhatsApp and

Snapchat were found to be strongly positively when it came to friendship closeness than

Instagram (Pouwel 2021). In part 1 of the study, momentary social media use and friendship

closeness, it was found that adolescents who used WhatsApp more frequently than those who

didn’t in a period of 3 weeks had closer friendships, this however didn’t go the same for

Instagram and Snapchat. On the contrary, on a small scale, there was little to no significance

when it came to social media use from the previous hour (Pouwel 2021). In part 2 of the study,

social media use with close friends, it was found that there was a “strong positive between-

person association of Instagram use when friendship closeness” within a 3-week period. On the

other side, they found “a significant small negative within-person association between Instagram

with and without close friends and friendship closeness” (Pouwel 2021). They found this slight

negative association because although it is a useful app to keep in contact with friends and

strengthen bonds between friends, it can also negatively impact an individual; This would

happen when an individual feels isolated from their friend group because they weren’t invited to

a get-together or did not receive enough likes, comments, and shares from their recent posts

(Pouwels 2021). From these two studies, the consensus on the social media use of adolescents
 Matthew Torres 4

and their social life is that there is little to no harm to their social life. If anything there is a

positive to social media use for friendships and connection.

After a look into the effect on social life due to social media use, another factor in

adolescent development is their mental development. During this time of their lives, adolescents

are prone to mental harm and mental anguish due to various reasoning whether it is caused by

academics, family and friends’ life, or a person-related problem (Rosen 2022). In two studies by

Orben and Rosen, respectively, they both found that research on social media and the effect it

has on adolescent mental health was very nuanced and complex. In the study by Orben, he

conducted a study without any sort of bias to find the truth of social media and its effect on

adolescents. He conducted a series of survey questions on around 12,000 adolescents in the UK

and answered the questions based on their experiences (Orben 2019). He concluded that there

was little correlation between a decline in mental health and the usage of social media among

adolescents. Although there were a few discrepancies in the data where gender played a slight

factor in changing the data slightly but not enough for it to be significant enough to show a

correlation (Orben 2019). This provides the complexity of the adolescent mind and shows the

resilience that they have when developing into adulthood. In another study by Rosen, he

compiled a few studies to form a conclusion about the effects of social media usage on

adolescents. There were numerous studies on the effects and many of these studies often

contradicted themselves. In a few studies, they would come to the conclusion that social media

has an adverse negative effect on the mental health of adolescents, but some other studies were

coming to the conclusion and showing that social media has an adverse positive effect on social

media (Rosen 2022). With both these conclusions they observe social media usage (time) and the

effect on the development of adolescents. Most studies that Rosen provided proved that more
 Matthew Torres 5

time on social media correlates with greater depression in adolescents; the opposite was seen in

the study where when adolescents decreased time on, or moderately used, social media they

found significantly less depression (Rosen 2022). When it came to adolescents’ development,

most studies showed that social media was a positive thing for their development. In different

studies, they saw that social media was usually a positive addition for adolescents because, in

their stage of development, they need “socialization and begin to explore different interpersonal

relationships” (Rosen 2022). Since social media is used primarily to provide communication

amongst different people or to stay in communication with people, social media is a positive

factor in adolescent development. However, Rosen concluded that data about social media and

its effect on mental was more complex than he thought and more nuanced. At the end of both

studies, they suggest more research on the topic.

After observing the complexity of trying to study the effect of social media on mental

health, lastly, is there an effect on education? In recent times the addition of technology and

education has been rising since the early 2000s, and for the most part, technology has been

integrated into many schools (Trivedi 2022). In a literature review study by Tess, he was going

through research studies on social media and its implications for the college world. Most studies

that Tess went over highlighted that communication between peers and professors increased

when social media became the source of communication between students and professors (Tess

2013). The studies Tess went over the integration of different types of social media into the

classroom and found that this integration was generally a positive move. The majority of the

research on the integration of Facebook showed better communication, an increase in discussion

board activity, and an increase in learning material and advice (Tess 2013). However, some

factors showed that the overuse of social media was slightly negative. When the study discussed
 Matthew Torres 6

integrating blogs into the lesson, there was also a positive attribution to the integration of blogs.

Students liked the idea of the professor adding information to the blog and the notion that the

students were able to add information and even judge the information the professor presented in

the blog (Tess 2013). The blogs also increased group activity among students and increase

discussions between students (Tess 2013). In another literature review study by Trivedi, he went

over research studies on social media, also focusing on different types of social media platforms.

In the review, he began talking about how the integration of technology in the classroom,

especially in the college classroom, is rapidly increasing but they wanted to observe if this was a

positive or negative factor. When it came to Facebook, it also had a positive attribution, in the

sense, that it increased communication and increased the discussion of information and a higher

level of thinking (Trivedi 2022). In the studies that Trivedi observed, there was a positive

correlation with students being more willing to communicate with other students. This was

because students felt more comfortable asking questions to their peers and communicating

generally with their peers over Facebook than face-to-face (Trivedi 2022). It also introduced

YouTube as a major tool in education, helping students with visual and educational videos.

Trivedi also explains that social media allows students to become more creative, and engaged,

and enhance their interests. Both studies came to the conclusion that social media increased

communication between professors and students and even student-to-student communication.

Both studies also pushed for more research to be done to further understand the implications of

social media in education. Tess also explained that the integration of social media in lessons will

take time just as technology slowly was integrated into the educational system. He further

explained that increasing numbers of teachers are including social media in their lessons.
 Matthew Torres 7

Ultimately, research on social media and its effect on adolescents' lives is a new field of

research and many researchers are beginning to study and learn more about it: especially in the

field of adolescents’ mental health and education. This ever-growing field of social media and

adolescents is consistently finding more results and with every current study on social media,

almost every study ends with how the research could’ve been done better and they provide

information and advice for future research. The world of social media and adolescents is yet to

be a set thing or black and white when it comes to definitive answers to questions that arise from

social media usage. However, in the future of social media research, hopefully, there will be

some answers to the questions of social media and adolescents.

 Matthew Torres 8

Work Cited

Hossain, Sajjat, et al. “Analyze the Usage of Social Media and Its Effects on Tertiary Level

Students Social Life.” Current Research Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, vol.

3, no. 2, 2020, pp. 140–51, https://doi.org/10.12944/CRJSSH.3.2.03.

Pouwels, J. Loes, et al. “Social Media Use and Friendship Closeness in Adolescents’ Daily

Lives: An Experience Sampling Study.” Developmental Psychology, vol. 57, no. 2, 2021,

pp. 309–23, https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001148.

Orben, Amy, et al. “Social Media’s Enduring Effect on Adolescent Life Satisfaction.”

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS, vol. 116, no. 21, 2019, pp.

10226–28, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1902058116.

Rosen, Devan. The Social Media Debate : Unpacking the Social, Psychological, and Cultural

Effects of Social Media. Edited by Devan Rosen, ROUTLEDGE, 2022,

https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003171270.

Tess, Paul A. “The Role of Social Media in Higher Education Classes (real and Virtual) – A

Literature Review.” Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 29, no. 5, 2013, pp. A60–A68,

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2012.12.032.

Trivedi, Shrawan Kumar, et al. “A Study on Intention to Use Social Media in Higher

Education: The Mediating Effect of Peer Influence.” Global Knowledge, Memory and
 Matthew Torres 9

Communication, vol. 71, no. 1/2, 2022, pp. 52–69, https://doi.org/10.1108/GKMC-11-

2020-0169.
 Matthew Torres 10

Annotated Bibliography

Hossain, Sajjat, et al. “Analyze the Usage of Social Media and Its Effects on Tertiary Level

Students Social Life.” Current Research Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, vol.

3, no. 2, 2020, pp. 140–51, https://doi.org/10.12944/CRJSSH.3.2.03.

The article was a study on college students and their use of social media. They wanted to see if

there was a correlation between negative social aspects of their life and social media. They found

that the consensus was that there was a positive or no effect on several categories of their social

life. The only thing that was negatively affected was their family and friend relationship. This

will be useful for my research paper because it gives a general view of how social media affects

college students on a social, mental, and academic level. The data proved useful for my paper

and it will serve to be useful and versatile.

Pouwels, J. Loes, et al. “Social Media Use and Friendship Closeness in Adolescents’ Daily

Lives: An Experience Sampling Study.” Developmental Psychology, vol. 57, no. 2, 2021,

pp. 309–23, https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001148.

This article was a study on adolescents and the correlation between friend closeness and social

media. They conducted an experiment amongst adolescents and different forms of social media

to see if there was any correlation between the two. They found that for the most part, there was

an increase in the closeness of friendship, but it was temporary. There was a slight negative

correlation when it came to spending time in person with or without people. This will help me

with the social life part of my essay, and it will explain some of the social effects outside of
 Matthew Torres 11

education. This study also provided a lot of information about other similar studies which is great

additional information for my essay. They also compared their data to these other studies to see

if there was a correlation or to disprove other studies that were previously done.

Orben, Amy, et al. “Social Media’s Enduring Effect on Adolescent Life Satisfaction.”

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS, vol. 116, no. 21, 2019, pp.

10226–28, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1902058116.

This article was a study on the satisfaction of life among adolescents who used social media.

They conducted a large-scale study on 12,000 10-15-year-olds to get a grasp on whether social

media had a negative effect on their lives due to misinformation from another research study that

was enforced by policies. They wanted to create a study that was free from bias and one that was

reliable enough to use for future reference in future studies. In their results, they found that the

opinion on social media's effect on adolescents’ satisfaction with life was more nuanced than

they previously thought. The data was very inconsistent between genders and results. This article

encourages more research to be done in the same fashion so that we can discover if social media

does have a negative factor on adolescents’ life like policies and media articles like to push

forward.

Rosen, Devan. The Social Media Debate : Unpacking the Social, Psychological, and Cultural

Effects of Social Media. Edited by Devan Rosen, ROUTLEDGE, 2022,

https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003171270.

This article talks about current research studies on the effects of social media and adolescents'

mental health. They found that it is very nuanced and complex because a lot of the studies varied

in results. One study would prove or show that social media had no effects on adolescents'
 Matthew Torres 12

mental health and another would prove or show that it did. One thing that was in common was

that when you increase the amount of social media there is a correlation between worse mental

health and more social media use. This article tries to put a definitive answer on whether social

media is good or not but research on social media and mental health amongst adolescents is very

complex and they suggest that further research be completed to see if it is possible to figure out if

there is a definitive answer on this question.

Tess, Paul A. “The Role of Social Media in Higher Education Classes (real and Virtual) – A

Literature Review.” Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 29, no. 5, 2013, pp. A60–A68,

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2012.12.032.

This article is a literature review going over numerous studies that studied the implementation of

social in the college educational world. The researcher wanted to see if social media would be

implemented in the college classroom. Throughout the review, there was almost a positive

association between social media and the increase in discussion and interpersonal relationships

with other students. Students almost always felt more comfortable discussing and talking about

more complex things through social media. However, throughout the review, there was always a

warning to be aware that social media could have a negative factor in the education of college

students: preparedness, procrastination, and time management. At the end of the review, the

researcher could not come to a conclusion about whether social media will become a new tool

for educational learning.

Sherman, Lauren E., et al. “The Power of the Like in Adolescence: Effects of Peer Influence on

Neural and Behavioral Responses to Social Media.” Psychological Science, vol. 27, no.

7, 2016, pp. 1027–35, https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797616645673.

 Matthew Torres 13

This article is another literature review that goes over studies that were done to see the

effectiveness of social media’s integration into the educational system. They found that social

media was a positive addition to learning and encourage communication among peers. It drove

learning when educators included social media in their lessons and students often found

themselves associating education as positively as they view social media. There were downsides

to the overuse of social media in education as the student could lose focus or the notion that

certain lessons are better taught in person with an educator. The researcher found that a mixture

of in-person education and social media communication drove learning among students. They

also found that many students preferred when social media, like YouTube, were included in the

lesson. Overall the article saw a positive correlation between social media and education but

pushed for further research on the academic side and educator perspective.